The real name of Bard Chaglari, one of the important poets of today’s bard literature and who was born in Van in 1951, is Mehmet Akçay. In his poems, the artist used the name Mehmet Akçay as well as the pseudonym Chaglari.

Chaglari, who completed his primary and secondary education in Van, completed his military service in Isparta between 1973 and 1974. He stated that he started working as a civil servant at Sumerbank in 1975, that he was assigned to Erzurum for a while, and that he retired from his civil service in 1999, from the information given in his poetry book “A Bunch of Emotions”.

In this research, information was given about the life and art of Bard Chaglari. The artist’s poetry book “A Bunch of Emotions” was examined using the document analysis method. The themes that the artist used in his poems were classified under the headings of individual, religious, and social themes. Under the heading of individual themes, lover and love; goodness; separation, longing and death; Themes of the transience of worldly life and complaints about time were included. How these themes were handled in the poems was interpreted by giving examples from the poems. Under the title of religious themes, the themes of the prophet, self-discipline, perfect human being, contemplation, prayer, and trust in the poems were included. These themes were explained with examples. Under the heading of social themes, themes such as flag, homeland, work, language, harmful habits, and moral corruption were included, and these themes were explained with examples selected from poems. 

In this research, it was determined that the artist wrote lyrical poems on the themes of love, lover, and separation, didactic poems on religious themes, and epic poems on social themes. To protect cultural values, such artists should be introduced and their poems should be conveyed to the younger generations.

Bard, Chaglari, Turkish folk literature, minstrel literature, Mehmet Akçay